contamination
Americannoun
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contaminations
plural
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the act of contaminating, or of making something impure or unsuitable by contact with something unclean, bad, etc.
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the act of contaminating, or of rendering something harmful or unusable by the addition of radioactive material.
the contamination of food following a nuclear attack.
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the state of being contaminated.
The manufacturer recalled the product because of possible salmonella contamination.
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Rare. something that contaminates a place or substance, as by making it impure, unsuitable, harmful, or unusable; a contaminant.
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Linguistics.
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an alternation in a linguistic form due to the influence of a related form, as the replacement in English of earlier femelle with female through the influence of male.
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the process of forming blends.
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noun
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the act or process of contaminating or the state of being contaminated
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something that contaminates
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linguistics the process by which one word or phrase is altered because of mistaken associations with another word or phrase; for example, the substitution of irregardless for regardless by association with such words as irrespective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of contamination
1375–1425; late Middle English contaminacioun < Late Latin contāminātiōn- (stem of contāminātiō ), equivalent to contāmināt ( us ) ( see contaminate) + -iōn- -ion
Explanation
Contamination is the unwanted pollution of something by another substance. When a nuclear power plant leaks radiation into the atmosphere, for example, it causes a contamination of the surrounding area. Contamination can also be used to refer to abstract ideas and concepts rather than to just physical things. The French complain that the increasing adoption of English words is a contamination of their linguistic heritage, and many parents today think rap music is a contamination of the public culture.
Vocabulary lists containing contamination
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Midwest Poultry Services voluntarily recalled the eggs over potential contamination with Salmonella Enteritidis on July 22.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
In this new contamination case, a Sinaloa-based grower was identified by the U.S.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Meanwhile, members of the documentary team will appear before the Welsh Affairs Committee as it looks into alleged toxic "forever chemical" contamination in south Wales, the BBC has been told.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
He quickly documented the scene and protected the material from contamination.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 8, 2026
They soon discovered that the problem was that old nemesis, contamination.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Nephew said if time was short, the U.S. could also seek to dilute the material on-site by mixing it with natural uranium or destroy it, although that could cause chemical contaminations in the area.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 15, 2026
"Right now, the industry does their best to reduce those risks, but you will hear about outbreaks of these contaminations and people getting sick. There are sometimes reported deaths because of these events."
From Science Daily ● Mar. 1, 2024
“We had a jump in contaminations since the beginning of January, tripling the number of people infected,” Pazuello said Tuesday.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 27, 2021
A freedom of information request by the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme to FSS showed various "contaminations" across the country.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2018
Our only hope lies in rousing, in our own community, a soul of goodness, a wise aspiration, that shall give us strength to assimilate this unwholesome food to better substance, or cast off its contaminations.
From Life Without and Life Within or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and poems. by Margaret Fuller
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
